WATCH: Ben Shelton suffers bizarre injury in sensational clash with Sebastian Korda
Sebastian Korda and Ben Shelton played out an epic all-American match at the Shanghai Masters, with one incident certain to leave a lasting impression on the loser of this clash.
Korda recovered from a set down to defeat Ben Shelton 6-7 (10) 6-2 7-6 (6) at the Shanghai Masters in a clash lasting two hours and 55 minutes.
It was the first all-American quarter-final at a Masters 1000 event for six years and it did not disappoint, with the explosive Shelton finally taking his fifth chance to win the opening-set tie-break having earlier failed to serve it out.
Korda, two years older at 23, hit back strongly and Shelton appeared to be flagging physically when he trailed by a break in the deciding set.
But he fought back to level and saved five match points from 1-6 in the deciding tie-break before Korda clinched his sixth opportunity.
“It’s super cool,” said Korda. “I played a really high level. Ben did as well. We had a lot of great points out there and hopefully it’s the first of many battles that we play against each other. He’s such an electric tennis player and it was a lot of fun to share the court with him today.
“I played some bad points but I always believed in myself, even at 6-6 (in the final tiebreaker). I just thought about putting the return in the court, somehow getting my racquet on it and luckily I finished it off then.”
In a high-entertaining match, Shelton hit some remarkable big serves once again and also had an alarming incident when he hit his head with own own racket in what looked like painful incident.
https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/1712456913063977197
Shelton tried to laugh off his pain after what was a somewhat embarrassing incident, but he could not find a way to get over the winning line against an inspired Korda.
Despite the ultimate defeat in his first ATP 1000 quarter-final, this has been a great week for Shelton, who beat the in-form Jannik Sinner in the previous round.
Shelton admitted he has been on a learning curve in China, as he gets used to life on the ATP Tour after his breakthrough year.
“It’s been a really cool week or couple of weeks now. I really enjoyed my time here. I’m playing well, so it’s been fun to experience another place and another tournament,” said Shelton.
“Most important lesson? I think that there are a couple. I think that, you know, being out on tour as a tennis player, it’s easy for you to think that the world revolves around you, but it doesn’t.
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“For me, I think how I treat people every single day, around the site, and the people who work for the tournament, it really couldn’t happen without them.
“I think that it’s easy, just being in the situation myself and seeing it, it would be easy to take it for granted and think that, you know, you’re a star or you’re bigger than you really are.
“I think that staying true to myself and treating people the right way day-in and day-out, no matter how I’m feeling, losing a match, winning a match, I think that’s probably one of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned.
“I guess the other biggest lesson I’ve learned is just, you know, people are always watching the things that you do and say.
“Being a college kid a year and a half ago, that wasn’t something that I expected or to be in that situation now. It’s something that, you know, happened quite quickly and was kind of a shock to me.
“The biggest shock for me wasn’t the places that I traveled to, it was just how much travel there was, and how continuous this tour is, how few breaks in the schedule there are.
“I would say that’s been the biggest surprise to me, you know, going week after week after week, and having to pick yourself up.
“If you had a good week, maybe you’re tired because you played a lot of matches. If you had a poor week, you know, you have to get that out of your mind going into the next week. I would say that’s the biggest shock or thing that I didn’t expect.”
In the last four, Korda will take on 16th seed Hubert Hurkacz, who ended the surprise run of Hungarian Fabian Marozsan with a 4-6 6-1 6-3 victory.
